In France, supermarket turns ugly fruit and veg into own-brand soups and juices

In France, supermarket turns ugly fruit and veg into own-brand soups and juices

Retail

Intermarché is turning fruit and veg that's too ugly to sell into a range of new products.

The amount of perfectly edible food that gets thrown away is now well documented, and yet there still aren't too many options for retailers to ensure they avoid contributing to the problem. We recently wrote about the UK's Sainsbury's chain, which is powering one of its outlets entirely from the food waste it produces. Now Intermarché is now turning fruit and veg that's too ugly to sell into a range of new products.

The supermarket has created a new line of soups and juices called Les Fruits & Légumes Moches that aims to teach customers about food waste. As well as dedicating a section of its stores to ugly fruit and veg that consumers can buy at a 30 percent reduction from its standard groceries, the company also developed carrot soups, orange juice, mashed potatoes and aubergine purées from the cosmetically-challenged foods. Working with the Marcel agency, Intermarché created a special branding for the new range that actually celebrates the fact that its ingredients aren't pretty, but perfectly fine to eat. Free samples were offered to customers in order to demonstrate that ugly fruit and veg can be just as tasty as pleasant-looking ones.

Watch the video below to learn more about the campaign:

According to Marcel, the initiative led to an average of 1.2 tons of ugly fruit and veg and related products sold in the first two days after launch. The campaign demonstrates that consumers are willing to buy food even if it veers from the idealized image they think it should look like. Could other supermarkets use a similar campaign to put an end to food going to landfill simply because it doesn't look pretty?